International Ideas Competition Reinventing Our Rivers, Québec landscape architecture competition, Canadian architecture contest images

International Ideas Competition Reinventing Our Rivers, Canada

Urban Design, Competition, Landscape Architecture for Canada – The City of Québec

28 Nov 2017

The City of Québec

Location: Ville de Québec, Canada

International Ideas Competition Reinventing Our Rivers: Four Rivers, Three Winners

Reinventing our Rivers First Place
First Place – image © The CADASTER team

Reinventing Our Rivers: Four Rivers, Three Winners

The City of Québec has presented the three winning teams in the Reinventing Our Rivers competition. In attendance were Régis Labeaume, mayor of Québec City, and Julie Lemieux, vice chair of the executive committee responsible for culture, heritage, and urban planning.

Reinventing our Rivers Second Place
Second Place – image © The WHITE Arkitekter team

The U.S. team CADASTER from Brooklyn took home the $100,000 first prize. The second prize of $60,000 went to the White Arkitekter team, representing Norway, with members from Europe, the U.S., and Canada. The third place prize of $40,000 went to the JOO HYUNG OH team from Glendale, California.

“The quality of the proposals we received was very high, but the three selected by the jury stood out from the rest,” said Mayor Régis Labeaume. “We’re thrilled by the ideas they came up with, and we now have a great jumping-off point to develop our rivers in the years ahead.”

Reinventing our Rivers Third Place
Third Place – image © The JOO HYUNG OH team

A top notch jury
An international jury, led by architect Jandrik Hoesktra from the Netherlands, was assembled to select the winners:

Claude Cormier, landscape architect, Montréal
Jérôme Dupras, ecologist and professor at Université du Québec en Outaouais, Gatineau
Ken Greenberg, urban designer and professor at Ryerson University, Toronto
Julie Lemieux, vice chair of the executive committee responsible for culture, heritage, and urban planning, Québec City
Jacques Soignon, director of the Department of Green Spaces and the Environment, Nantes
Annie Tardivon, landscape architect, urban planner, and tenured professor, Agence INUITS, Paris

The jury’s deliberations sparked useful discussions about the impact of the competition for Québec City. The selection process also got the ball rolling on the long-term planning for the rivers. The jury members discussed the proposals and noted that each one contained ideas that could be useful in drawing up the River Development Master Plan.

“The quality of the jury and the knowledge the members brought the table fuelled some very productive discussions about Québec City’s rivers,” said Julie Lemieux. “Not only did we review each proposal in detail to select the winners, we also looked for ideas that would help us envisage the future. In addition to river development per se, we also took into account the challenges posed by current environmental requirements and by climate change so we would make choices that respect the rivers’ ecosystems.”
Four rivers, three winners

First place
The CADASTER team, Brooklyn, United States:

Gabriel Cuellar, Urban Design (U.S.)
Athar Mufreh, Landscape Architecture and Environment (U.S.)

Reinventing our Rivers First Place

Reinventing our Rivers First Place

Reinventing our Rivers First Place

Reinventing our Rivers First Place

Reinventing our Rivers First Place
images © The CADASTER team

The Headwater Lot proposal offered realistic, concrete solutions to the questions of river accessibility and use that are smart yet simple. The team’s keen understanding of the community and its environment showed in their plans for reconnecting the urban fabric with the natural environment , which won over the jury. Their proposal sent a powerful message, conveying a clear, simple development strategy that works for all four rivers and that could have a major impact on the future of the rivers, the development of the city, and the daily lives of its residents.

Second place
The WHITE Arkitekter team,  Oslo, Norway:
Jenny Mäki, Architect (Sweden)
Eric Reid, Landscape Architect (Canada)
Rebekah Schaberg, Urban Planner (U.S.)
Anna Graf, Environmental Design Specialist (Sweden)
Joan Rassmusen, Architect (Denmark)
Sander Schuur, Sustainable Water Management (Netherlands)
Niels de Bruin, Landscape Architect (Sweden)

Reinventing our Rivers Second Place

Reinventing our Rivers Second Place
images © The WHITE Arkitekter team

This proposal was evocatively titled Parc des quatre rivières, National Urban Park of Québec. The jury loved the idea of a national urban park. They found it bold and innovative. The intentions were clear and the proposed methods convincing. The overall theme and its multiple applications highlight the right of residents to enjoy the rivers in different ways, with the addition of many new park features to help bridge the divide between urban and natural environments and encourage residents to truly reconnect with the rivers.

Third place
The JOO HYUNG OH team from Glendale, United States:
Joohyung Oh, Architect (Pentatonic, U.S.)
Jae Ho Yoon, Urban Designer (Pentatonic, South Korea)
Su In Kim, Architect (Pentatonic, South Korea)
Hyuksung Kwon, Landscape Designer (Pentatonic, South Korea)
Sunjae Yu, City Planner (Pentatonic, South Korea)

Reinventing our Rivers Third Place

Reinventing our Rivers Third Place

Reinventing our Rivers Third Place

Reinventing our Rivers Third Place
images © The JOO HYUNG OH team

Called The Loop, Reinventing Our Rivers, this highly imaginative proposal grabbed the jury’s attention. The proposal generated strong reactions among the jury, with some members applauding it for its boldly imaginative scope and others underscoring certain flaws. In general, the proposal was very powerful as an idealized, utopian vision, but hard to imagine in terms of real world implementation. Nonetheless, the wealth of inspirational ideas it contained—it was an ideas competition, after all—earned this proposal a place among the winners.

Reinventing our Rivers Second Place
images © The WHITE Arkitekter team

International Ideas Competition Reinventing Our Rivers images / information received 281117

Location: Québec, Canada, North America

Quebec Building Designs

Montreal Building Designs – architectural selection below:

Montreal Architecture Designs – chronological list

Montreal Architecture Walking Tours – North American architectural tours by e-architect

Montreal Restaurants, Cafés & Bar Lounges – new page

Artopex Head Office, Granby, Quebec
Architects: Luc Plante architecture + design inc
Artopex Head Office Granby
photo © Bastiani photography
Artopex Head Office Granby

Lightspeed offices – Phase 2
Architects: ACDF Architecture
Lightspeed Offices Phase 2 Montreal
photo © Adrien Williams
Lightspeed offices Phase 2

Montreal Buildings

Palais des Congrés, Montreal, Quebec
Realisation: Les architectes Tétrault, Dubuc, Saia et associés ; Hal Ingberg architecte (Independent architectural consultant and co-designer)
Palais des Congrés

Canadian Property Design

Canada Architecture Design – chronological list

Canadian Houses

Contemporary Canada Property Designs – recent architectural selection from e-architect below:

Canadian Architects

Canadian Architecture

Canadian Buildings

Comments / photos for the International Ideas Competition Reinventing Our Rivers Canada Architecture page welcome.